Chapter Three: So much trouble

As the sun began to fall, painting the village a warm orange and making the hot summer day a cooler on setting evening, they finished cleaning the library out until everything was spotless…save for the neatly stacked books on the desks and several piles of broken book shelves. All the dust and cobwebs were gone, any guests-unwelcome ones that scurried about-were caught and set free outside.

The shelves each had a label to them and so did the books themselves, tabs of paper taped to the spines and written in neatly. Sakura left the log she'd made on the desk and stepped back with a sigh.

Naruto stepped up beside her and smiled, she was right, the whole room looked ten times better than when they started. He however had a large amount of dust on his body since he did most of the cleaning anyway. Kakashi dusted…the same shelf the entire time while Sakura made logs of the books that had been cleaned off the shelves. He was left with all of the dirty work but in the end, the room was cleaned the job was done…but-

"Why did I have to clean everything?"

Sakura silenced him with one good swipe to the back of his head and continued smiling. "Lady Tsunade is going to be so-"

"CIRCUMSIZED BITCHES…!" They heard from the floor above.

Naruto grinned like the Cheshire at the door, "Sounds like someone pissed her off."

Sakura rushed past him and he followed her out the door toward the Hokage's office one floor up while Kakashi slowly walked with his book in hand. They rounded the corner and ran toward the open doors where they saw a few broken items piled up against the wall. Inside they heard Shizune's voice.

"Lady Hokage, please calm down." She tried helplessly.

They ran in but Sakura dove back out into the hall while Naruto got hit with a vase and was knocked down.

"I KNOW IT'S HERE AND YOU ARE GOING TO HELP ME FIND IT!" she yelled at the top of her lungs throwing item after item out the door.

"Shizune what's going on?" Naruto groaned from the floor.

"Lady Hokage lost a very important document and she needs it for the briefing." Shizune ducked to avoid a large drawer being flung at her.

Sakura walked in and seemed blind to a large box that was heading straight for her head.

"LOOK OUT!" Shizune and Naruto exclaimed.

She however blankly avoided the box and calmly went over the desk where she lifted up a glass of coffee that had somehow survived the fray beside it and pulled a file out from under it. "Lady Hokage…" She said evenly and Tsunade was about to raise her voice but she saw the file label with a coffee ring in the middle. "Is this what you're looking for?"

She stood up straight and took it calmly, all signs of rage gone! "Oh, there it is, thank you Sakura."

Naruto and Shizune sighed when Kakashi walked in and stood beside Sakura. "We also finished cleaning, Lady Hokage." He said evenly.

"That's great Kakashi, and I've already got your next assignment." She said with a grin while Naruto peeled himself off the floor.

"What's up?" he said.

"One of our sentries was found knocked out at his post this morning, when he was asked what had happened he said a woman had made her way into the village, she tried to slip past him but when he spotted her she-" she stopped and opened the folder. "Jumped on him and asked him not to yell."

Naruto and Sakura tilted her head.

"When he began to fight back she tried to calm him down by stepping back but then he tried to subdue her and she knocked him down then apologized before knocking him cold."

"Why…" Naruto began.

"He's unsure but he said she has long black hair, a petite body frame, round face, brown eyes and very good manners?" she quirked an eyebrow at the last part.

"I'd like you to join the night patrol, they've got her isolated in one section of the village near the school but we need more Shinobi to make the plan work."

"What plan?" Naruto asked.

"Having her isolated in one section of the village is working and they've managed to keep her there but whenever they tried to close in on her they nearly lose her, she almost got away today. This is why we need you. We're going to use you to find her, if you sweep through the area, one of you will find her and when you do, radio the others and they'll make their move."

"What, you're going to put all your eggs in one basket?" Sakura asked.

"Yes, unfortunately most of our Shinobi are away on missions and this is our only chance to catch her. While her initial attack was...not so threatening, the fact that she had to sneak into the village itself was a threat on its own." She stood up. "Go prepare yourselves and get some rest, I want you on top of your game this evening."

"What does she look like again?" Naruto asked.

Tsunade reached into the folder and pulled out a drawing. "We had one of our more artistically skilled ninja do a composite sketch based on the definition our sentry gave."

She handed them the image of a girl no older than thirteen, long black hair, a petite frame with wider hips and prominent brown eyes.

Naruto tried very hard to memorize the image, this mission was super important and the perfect chance for him to impress Kakashi Sensei after the little fiasco in the library. If he caught this person, maybe Kakashi would praise him more…he can't really recall when Kakashi has ever praised him. Of all the people he wanted to prove himself to, Kakashi was the most important ever since that day all those years ago.

The evening descended upon the village, the orange light of the sunlight faded away into pale moonlight. The village delved into the cool summer evening and crickets came to life, fireflies floated in the air, riding the gentle breeze.

Naruto walked toward the ninja academy and as he passed the entrance by he saw the school yard was full of fireflies, drifting around like the bustling center of the village.

He stopped when he saw a group of cats crowding around a bush that shivered with life, someone was settled inside it. He carefully reached for his knife but froze when someone placed their hand on his shoulder.

He whipped around and was struck directly in the center of his face, knocking him down. He looked up as his vision drifted between fuzzy and clear. The image was a blurry mess of purple and black; the intruder?

"Kaka-shi…" he tried numbly but his head was swimming.

The woman crouched before him, close enough to where he could see her eyes, glowing bright green. "Well, I didn't think they'd send you right to me." She said her voice deep and humming, like a cello.

"You…can't-"he started then he heard someone start screaming, impossibly loudly. She looked up at someone and he turned to see her looking at whoever had been inside the bush and the cats were all screaming as well, sitting right beside her. It was a ghostly uproar that echoed around the village, no doubt waking everyone up and drawing all kinds of attention to that area.

He heard someone that wasn't that person yell at the woman. "STOP-"they started when she took off running. Six shadows suddenly followed her and a bright pink looking blur entered his vision.

"I don't have a lot of time!" said the shadow that came from the bush. "You'll be fine in just one moment."

A loud clap later and the shadow, was gone and his vision was clear, he didn't feel dizzy anymore and he felt fine. He sat up and looked around, he felt his cheeks heat up and pouted a little. His chance to prove himself just went right out the window.

"Naruto!" he heard from behind and he looked to see Sakura and Kakashi running over.

"Hey, did you guys see her?" he asked.

"No, the other Shinobi are chasing her now, are you ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine but I don't mean her, there was someone else here, she was hiding over in the bushes!" he pointed to the bush that no longer had the shadow or the cats, everything was gone. "There were cats surrounding it and they all started screaming at the same time!"

"Naruto I think you were just imagining it, why were you lying down?" she asked.

"The intruder hit me but then the shadow in the bush…did something to make my head clear up…I was all dizzy then-"

"It was probably a medic ninja that was hiding out, he probably went with the others."

"Regardless, we did our job and now we let the other Shinobi handle her. Our job is done and we can go home." Kakashi said pulling out his book and reading a line before calmly walking away.

"Wait Kakashi Sensei, don't you think we should take Naruto to see Lady Tsunade, what if he's hurt?" Sakura asked.

"No, Sakura I'm fine really; she didn't hit me that hard." He tried but she pointed at his forehead.

"No I mean for those hallucinations about the cats, there are no cats anywhere." She said flatly before standing up and offering him her hand.

He took it and stood up while Kakashi stood nearby reading. "Well, we did have a long night so why not we take tomorrow off and see how you're feeling the day after Naruto?" he offered.

Naruto thought it over, he didn't want to rest and he needed to train more than ever! She got the drop on him and he didn't even notice her! "No, I'll be fine to train tomorrow."

Kakashi lowered the book and looked to Sakura. "Why don't you go ahead home Sakura, you enjoy your day off." She nodded and waved before walking away.

Naruto watched her walk around the corner and head home then looked back to Kakashi with big eyes. "Sensei, I'll be fine to train tomorrow!" he complained as Kakashi put his book away and started walking toward him. "I can train tomorrow, I feel just fine, I'm even willing to start right now if you-"he stopped as Kakashi leaned down to almost touch noses with him and held his chin, staring directly into Naruto's eyes that looked grey in the moonlight. Kakashi's silvery hair almost shimmered and his grey eye looked mystic, hiding a cryptic secret that no one knew but him.

"Naruto…go home and take tomorrow off, the last thing I want to see is you hurt. I couldn't stand it before and I won't stand for you to get yourself hurt by being stubborn," his gaze almost intensified. "Don't make me have to put you in bed myself…"

Naruto felt his knees weaken and his already red face was aflame and his heart was doing double time, did he really just say that to him?

"Naruto," he said, his sultry voice making Naruto nod blankly, words lost to him. "Go home and go to bed…now." He pulled back and just walked away.

Naruto remained still then collapsed to his knees and began panting…he looked back and put a hand on his chest, feeling how fast his heart was going and trying to regain his breath…

His eyes wide and his breathing labored he gasped. "Was that what sex is like?"

Upon returning home he wanted nothing more than to take a bath and get some sleep. He did want to flop onto his bed first though, he needed just a second to recover from Kakashi's steaming little onslaught.

He threw himself onto bed only to feel a lumpy surface…a body under the covers. He jumped up with a yelp as the lump also yelped. Naruto turned and yanked the blanket off the bed to reveal a girl. A very pretty girl with a petite body and big eyes, her face was round but she looked…adorable.

"What-"he started but she raised her hands and her eyes looked terrified.

"Please don't yell, I'm sorry I broke in but I wanted to make sure you were Ok." She said quickly.

Her voice carried evenly and her speech was clear, like a flute. This is the second person he's met that had a voice like music.

"Who are you?" he asked evenly.

"My name is Lilli, I was hiding in a bush earlier, you saw the cats." She said when he realized that she had his walrus night cap on her head, and her hair was stuffed inside it.

"Why were you in a bush?" he asked. "Also, why are you wearing my hat?"

"I was trying to hide from the cats and I like this hat." She said calmly, getting off the bed and removing the hat.

Her long black hair cascaded down to her lower back, wispy and dark. He suddenly remembered the picture that Tsunade showed him earlier. "You-"he said.

She looked at him and he tensed up. "You're the one who attacked the sentry!"

Her eyes got big and she dropped the hat. "Wait, I can explain-"

Naruto ran for the door but she snapped her fingers and the door locked. She kept her hands up and her tone fairly even. "Please calm down!"

Naruto then turned and charged at her but she sidestepped him, moving much faster than he thought she could and drove her elbow into his back, knocking him down. He whipped around and kicked her in the stomach, sending her flying into the door.

"Sorry lady!" he threw a kunai knife at her but it went a little rogue and went at her face. "OH NO!" he shouted and it struck her making her head snap to the side. All was quiet.

He saw something hit the floor behind her, a black silk ribbon, now torn in two. He then looked up to see her looking directly at him with pink cheeks. "Uh oh," she said.

Naruto suddenly felt his breath catch in his throat. On top of her head were two large black fox ears and she frowned and her hair seemed to puff a little bit like a frightened cat.

Naruto's eyes widened and he pointed at her. "WHAT ARE YOU?!"

"I am in so much trouble is what I am man!" she screamed back.